Alloy.



UNITED STATES PATENT @FFICE.

\VILFRED VAN \VART, FRANZ WILLIAM POPP, AND JOSEPH JOHN BRADLEY,

OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND.

ALLOY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 633,743, dated September 26, 1899.

Application filed December 23, 1897. Serial No. 663,228. (No specimens.)

To a, whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, \VILFRED VAN \VART, FRANZ WILLIAM PoPP, and J osnPH JOHN BRADLEY, subjects of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Birmingham, England, have invented certain new and useful Improve ments in Alloys, (for which we have obtained patents in Great Britain, No. 12,287, bearing date June 5, 1896, and No. 19,640, bearingdate September 5, 1896,) of which the following is a specification.

Our invention has for its main object the production of a new or improved alloy having for its base or major portion aluminium, and which improved metal shall comprise among other advantages extreme lightness, strength, durability, and non-corrosiveness,

wherebyitis especially adapted for the man u-* facture of tubes of all kinds, sheets, wire, castings, and the like and for other industrial uses.

By the employment of our improved alloy we are enabled to greatly improve upon the good qualities claimed for aluminium and add a very considerable number of others which aluminium does not possess.

AS is well known, aluminium by itself, though valuable for some purposes, is practically useless for the majority of industrial trades in which metals are used, as it is very unreliable when being worked up, and therefore will not produce satisfactorily such articles as tubes, sheets, wire, castings, and the like. Moreover, castings made of it cannot be successfully used by reason of its extreme softness. For a similar reason aluminium affords comparatively little tensile strength, but is weak under compression and bending tests.

Now in order to overcome these difficulties and to provide for the object that we have in view we proceed as follows: In or about the following proportions we take, of aluminium, say, one hundred parts; of copper, from one to ten parts; of zinc, from one-eighth of a part to six parts; of silver, from one-eighth of a part to six parts; of tin, from one-eighth of a part to four parts; of phosphorus, say, from one-sixteenth of a part to one part. These several ingredients are all well mixed together in the following or other suitable manner, which can be somewhat varied, according to requirements: The copper is first of all melted. The zinc is then added by gradual additions after warming same. At the same time the silver is added, so that the stirring or working may proceed evenly upon the whole of these ingredients during the process of mixing. Aluminium is then added. The pot is now withdrawn, and the tin is added, together with phosphorus. The admixture of ingredients is then well stirred until the whole has become well melted and amalgamated, so as to produce a homogeneous compound metal before pouring. The introduction and use of phosphorus we find by experiments imparts solidity to the mass of metal and at the same time improves the elasticity or ductility.

Our metal will be found especially valuable for the manufacture of the tubes forming the framing and for the rims of the wheels and for other of the component parts of cycles, autocars, and other road-vehicles, and which, while retaining all the advantages of aluminium or of aluminium and its alloys as generally understood, will be without many of the disadvantages appertaining to the latter. By varying the quantity of the ingredients with in the proportions named the metal may be made harder or softer, according to require= ments.

It will be understood fromthe formula above set forth for purposes of example that where fractional parts are given they are based upon their relation to the other parts. For instance, one-eighth of a part to four parts equals, say, one-eighth of a pound to fou pounds, and so on. Y

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The herein described improved alloyed metal consisting of aluminium, copper, zinc, tin, silver and phosphorus, the percentage of aluminium therein being from ninety per cent. upward substantially as specified.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two Witnesses.

IVILFRED VAN WART. FRANZ IVILL'IAH POPP. JOSEPH JOHN BRADLEY.

\Vitnesses:

EDWD. BAETON PAYNE, CHARLES J OHN LUCAS. 

